Hi Brian, I’m the executive director of Farmed Animals Protection Association(Çiftlik Hayvanlarını Koruma Derneği) in Turkey, which works mainly in two program areas: corporate cage-free campaigns and corporate engagement to ensure effective stunning of farmed fish before slaughter. You can read more about our work from our Animal Charity Evaluators review. In our latest application to EA Animal Welfare Fund, we were granted less than the amount we requested. Therefore both of our program areas still have more room for funding. Furthermore, having a diverse donor base rather than relying on a few institutional donors helps us to attract better talent as it allows us to demonstrate long-term sustainability to potential hires. You can reach out to our fundraising director Çağrı, cagri.mutaf@kafessizturkiye.com to donate to us through Animal Charity Evaluators’ fiscal sponsorship. I’m happy to answer any questions you might have.
Thanks! I may have several questions later. :) For now, I was curious about your thoughts on the funging framework in general. Do you think it is the case that if one EA gives more to you, then other EAs like the Animal Welfare Fund will tend to give at least somewhat less? And how much less?
I sort of wonder if that funging model is wrong, especially in the case of rapidly growing charities. For example, suppose the Animal Welfare Fund in year 1 thinks you have enough money, so they don’t grant any more. But another donor wants you to spend $25K (or whatever it costs) to hire an extra person. That other donor gives you a $25K donation in year 1, and you make the additional hire. Suppose that donor stops giving to you in year 2. Now you have an extra hire needing $25K/year—a funding gap that no one is filling. So in a sense, you now have that much more additional room for funding. And as long as that hire remains employed with you, you have that additional funding gap every year. The one-time donation of $25K resulted in an ongoing additional $25K of room for funding in subsequent years. This would be the opposite of the funging model assumed in my post: an individual donor’s gift led to more funding from the Animal Welfare Fund over the long run, not less.
Maybe if the Animal Welfare Fund thought you had enough money in year 1, then they would continue to stick by that assessment in year 2 and not want to fund the additional hire. But I doubt people’s opinions about exactly how much money can be spent well are that precise.
The funging model seems most applicable to a static organization that has a constant number of staff members and a constant cost of programs. If it gets more money than it needs in one year, it will consume less in the following year.
I don’t really have a good response to your main question as I can’t speak on behalf of the grantmakers. But I might at least contribute in the following way:
In our first and second years, EA Animal Welfare Fund and other funders were willing to fund us more than we requested. So if some individual donor gave money to us in our first and second years, we would basically ask for less money from EA Animal Welfare Fund and other sources.
This is no longer the case as EA Animal Welfare Fund doesn’t make grants larger than $100k very often. For that reason, additional individual donations have a counterfactual positive impact on our growth. But I don’t know if additional individual contributions lead the grantmakers to grant less money to us. That is something grantmakers can speak about.
Hi Brian, I’m the executive director of Farmed Animals Protection Association(Çiftlik Hayvanlarını Koruma Derneği) in Turkey, which works mainly in two program areas: corporate cage-free campaigns and corporate engagement to ensure effective stunning of farmed fish before slaughter. You can read more about our work from our Animal Charity Evaluators review. In our latest application to EA Animal Welfare Fund, we were granted less than the amount we requested. Therefore both of our program areas still have more room for funding. Furthermore, having a diverse donor base rather than relying on a few institutional donors helps us to attract better talent as it allows us to demonstrate long-term sustainability to potential hires. You can reach out to our fundraising director Çağrı, cagri.mutaf@kafessizturkiye.com to donate to us through Animal Charity Evaluators’ fiscal sponsorship. I’m happy to answer any questions you might have.
Thanks! I may have several questions later. :) For now, I was curious about your thoughts on the funging framework in general. Do you think it is the case that if one EA gives more to you, then other EAs like the Animal Welfare Fund will tend to give at least somewhat less? And how much less?
I sort of wonder if that funging model is wrong, especially in the case of rapidly growing charities. For example, suppose the Animal Welfare Fund in year 1 thinks you have enough money, so they don’t grant any more. But another donor wants you to spend $25K (or whatever it costs) to hire an extra person. That other donor gives you a $25K donation in year 1, and you make the additional hire. Suppose that donor stops giving to you in year 2. Now you have an extra hire needing $25K/year—a funding gap that no one is filling. So in a sense, you now have that much more additional room for funding. And as long as that hire remains employed with you, you have that additional funding gap every year. The one-time donation of $25K resulted in an ongoing additional $25K of room for funding in subsequent years. This would be the opposite of the funging model assumed in my post: an individual donor’s gift led to more funding from the Animal Welfare Fund over the long run, not less.
Maybe if the Animal Welfare Fund thought you had enough money in year 1, then they would continue to stick by that assessment in year 2 and not want to fund the additional hire. But I doubt people’s opinions about exactly how much money can be spent well are that precise.
The funging model seems most applicable to a static organization that has a constant number of staff members and a constant cost of programs. If it gets more money than it needs in one year, it will consume less in the following year.
I don’t really have a good response to your main question as I can’t speak on behalf of the grantmakers. But I might at least contribute in the following way:
In our first and second years, EA Animal Welfare Fund and other funders were willing to fund us more than we requested. So if some individual donor gave money to us in our first and second years, we would basically ask for less money from EA Animal Welfare Fund and other sources.
This is no longer the case as EA Animal Welfare Fund doesn’t make grants larger than $100k very often. For that reason, additional individual donations have a counterfactual positive impact on our growth. But I don’t know if additional individual contributions lead the grantmakers to grant less money to us. That is something grantmakers can speak about.